A Turnaround Idea for Slow 4Q Sales

One of tool that works great on iPads, and has proven to lift sales, is online video.

Consider these stats:

Video is a driver of consumer confidence. Consumers are willing to watch videos 60 percent of the time they are found, and 52 percent of consumers report that they are less likely to return a product after viewing a video (Website Magazine).

52 percent of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in their online purchase decisions. When a video is information-intensive, 66 percent of consumers will watch the video two or more times. (Internet Retailer).

Shoppers who viewed video on product pages were 144 percent more likely to add to cart than other shoppers (Internet Retailer).

Shoppers who viewed video were 174 percent more likely to purchase than viewers who did not (Retail Touchpoints).

Looking for higher email click-through rates? Link to a video. About half of marketers who use video in email campaigns see increased clickthrough rates, time spent reading the email, and more sharing and forwarding. (eMarketer).

So what do you do today to test online video in the remaining days of this shopping season?

Conduct a competitive analysis of what your competition is doing with online video. Look at competitor websites for video, search on YouTube and social media. Check the length, and examine their format.

If you don't have a video, record one (or more)! If you don't have expertise inside your organization, there are multitudes of creative resources that can help you out. The fact is, an inexpensive camera, and someone with editing skills, can create a video for you in no time. While a bootstrap approach may not be ideal long-term, it's a place to start.

Send an email to your customer list to promote it. Use the word "video" in your subject line—testing shows your open rate will increase. Since we're talking mobile here, make sure your HTML emails are using responsive design. If they aren't, readability on smartphones is challenging, so readership and clickthrough rates go down. Most email portals—e.g., ConstantContact, iContact, Mailchimp, and others—offer responsive design email templates.

Include a link to your video on social media. After about 24 hours, check your social media metrics and you should see a spike in engagement with your followers.

Mail a postcard. You have time. Make it graphically obvious on the postcard you have an important video (story/product demonstration/testimonial) and direct your customers to your landing page. Use an oversized "Play" symbol on a thumbnail that you create of your video. Use a QR code or a PURL to more closely track response.

After bringing prospects to your landing page, you've got them started at the top of your sales funnel. Now it's time for marketing automation software to takeover (more about this topic in a future blog) and convert the lead to a customer before the books close for 2013.

If you haven't tried video, especially when it's proven that customers love mobile devices like iPads, now is your time. It's proven that consumers watch videos, confidence is lifted, and they're more likely to add a product to a cart and purchase after watching a video. Now is the time to test your organization's ability to be an agile direct marketer.

Reinventing Direct is for the direct marketer seeking guidance in the evolving world of online marketing. Gary Hennerberg is a mind code marketing strategist, based on the template from his new book, "Crack the Customer Mind Code." He is recognized as a leading direct marketing consultant and copywriter. He weaves in how to identify a unique selling proposition to position, or reposition, products and services using online and offline marketing approaches, and copywriting sales techniques. He is sought-after for his integration of direct mail, catalogs, email marketing, websites, content marketing, search marketing, retargeting and more. His identification of USPs and copywriting for clients has resulted in sales increases of 15 percent, 35 percent, and even as high as 60 percent. Today he integrates both online and offline media strategies, and proven copywriting techniques, to get clients results. Email him or follow Gary on LinkedIn. Co-authoring this blog is Perry Alexander of ACM Initiatives. Follow Perry on LinkedIn.